The Creator of 42-Form Taijiquan &
The Foremost Taiji Master of the World

by Siu-Fong Evans

Prior to the 1988, there was no standard for taijiquan. Taiji was passed on
master-to-student, changing and evolving with time and generation. Everybody
practiced taiji differently.

In international competition, this created a dilemma. How were judges to
score taiji routines that could be as different as pineapples and bananas? A
standard was needed.

42-Form Taijiquan was created to be that standard. It is a
combination-routine of the best of four traditional taiji styles --- the “silk
reeling power” of the Chen, the graceful strength of the Yang, the exquisite
subtleties of the Wu, and the flexible agility of the Sun --- plus eight-hand
and five-foot techniques from Push Hands. It was choreographed with harmony and
beauty in mind, and a high degree of technical difficulty in practice;
competitors must display a broad range of knowledge and skills in order to
perform 42-Form well. It is a symphony of motion.

In 1990, China hosted the 11th Asian Games. It was then that they announced
42-Form Taijiquan Competition Routine as the first ever universally standardized
taiji competition routine. This began a new chapter in the history of Wushu, and
the primary author is a man I am lucky enough to call my shifu (master):
Professor Li Deyin.

A Family of Wushu

Li Deyin is the third generation of famous masters from the Li family.

His grandfather Li Yulin was the first generation to study wushu. At an early
age, Li Yulin’s mother sent her only son to famous wushu masters with hopes of
health and self-preservation. He learned Shaolinquan and Xingyiquan from masters
Li Cunyi and Hao Enguang; he learned Sun style taijiquan and baguazhang from
master Sun Lutang; and he learned Yang style taijiquan and Wudang sword from
master Li Jinglin (a disciple of Yang Jianhou).

Li Yulin continued studying wushu into adulthood. He became the president of
the Shanghai Shangde Wushu Institute, the main coach of the Shandong Wushu
Institute, and the publisher of Harbin Taijiquan Press. He gained the honorable
title “Pioneer of Taijiquan” in Northeastern China.

Both of Li Yulin’s sons followed their father’s footsteps. Professor Li
Deyin’s father Li Tianchi became a doctor. He integrated wushu, medical
science, and tui na (massage) in order to better treat his patients. His name
and medical treatments became famous all over Harbin and Heilongjiang.

Professor Li’s uncle Li Tianji studied wushu from his father, Li Yulin, as
well as from his father’s masters, Sun Lutang and Li Jinglin. He graduated
from the Shandong Wushu Institute, became a college professor, the executive of
the Harbin Wushu Federation, and the first chief coach of the China Wushu Team.
Li Tianji has been memorialized as one of the “Ten Best Wushu Masters of China
(Zhongguo Shi Da Wushu Mingshi).”

In 1956 Li Tianji created the first standardized simplified taijiquan in
Chinese history: 24-Form Simplified Taijiquan and 32-Form Simplified Taiji
Sword. Both forms opened the door of taiji to novices and non-athletes, and both
are now extremely popular all over the world. For this, he earned the title
“Father of Contemporary Taijiquan.”

Li Deyin was born in 1938 in Hebei province. He was raised in a culture of
wushu and began training when he was eight years old. His grandfather, Li Yulin,
insisted that Li Deyin practice wushu every evening after school, without
exception, beginning with the basics of Xingyiquan’s Santishi and
taijiquan’s commencing form, and working up to all other styles and
difficulties of wushu. This became Li Deyin’s routine all year round, even in
the coldest of the winter and the hottest of summer, for twelve consecutive
years.

By virtue of such intense training under his family’s patriarch, Li Deyin
grew accustomed to perfection in wushu. As an adult, wushu took him to all
different regions and masters in China. He traveled to Shaolin Temple and Mount
Wudang to study from advanced abbots; he sought out Master Li Jingwu to learn
Chen style taijiquan, Master Xu Zhiyi to learn Wu style, Master Sun Jianyun to
learn Sun style, and Master Hao Jiajun to learn Yang style and Push Hands.

Taijiquan in the University

Before 1960, taiji was not taken seriously. It was considered more
appropriate for street performers than for the common populace, “difficult and
mysterious” rather than safe and healthy. Li Deyin, though, always knew
better.

Taijiquan is a traditional Chinese martial art and a Chinese national
treasure. It integrates the physical external and the meditative internal. It is
one of the few sports that improves balance, coordination, flexibility, muscle
strength, and cardiovascular health. It is gentle enough to be accessible to the
elderly and infirm, yet demanding enough to pose a significant challenge to the
most professional young athlete. Taijiquan is beneficial to people of all ages
and all lifestyles.

When Li Deyin entered college, his original idea of becoming an economist was
rapidly eclipsed by his superb skills in the sports, such as the hurdles,
motorbike racing, and, of course, martial arts. While an??? undergraduate, he
represented his university in a taijiquan tournament in Beijing; his strength
and elegance in wushu were so exceptional that, besides winning the gold medal,
he actually created a following, and taijiquan became a popular sport among
Chinese college students.

Immediately after Li Deyin graduated, Renmin University (People’s
University) in Beijing hired him as one of their youngest professors ever.
Because of him, taijiquan has become a for-credit class at all Chinese
universities, and 24-Form Taijiquan has become a required class for physical
education majors.

In 1959, Li Deyin trained and organized a team of college students to compete
in Beijing. Not surprisingly, the team won 13 gold medals and the group
competition championship. Since then, taijiquan has become one of the most
popular university sports.

Quality and Standards in Taijiquan

There is a difference between taiji for competition and taiji for health,
notes Li Deyin. The former should be strictly accurate according to accepted
choreography and held to rigorous standards of strength, flexibility, fluidity,
and stability. The latter can be practiced in any style or sub-style of taiji,
performed at any level of physical prowess, and should be given only
encouragement. The purpose of competitive taiji is perfection; otherwise, taiji
is for health and enjoyment.

In order to make taijiquan more enjoyable, Li Deyin had music composed for
24-Form Taijiquan and 32-Form Taiji Sword. He has also rewritten many taiji
books and, at the invitation of video and television producers, made a
significant number of instructional videos and television programs. Numerous
articles have been written about Li Deyin’s contributions and achievements in
China and many other countries, especially Japan.

People seek out Li Deyin’s materials. His style is simple and profound,
accessible to the average person and indispensable to the professional athlete.
His instructions are guaranteed to be excellent: he has broken down every
stance, form, and transition into clear, distinct movements. He gives precise
directions, applicable explanations, and perfect visual examples. His teaching
is honest, direct, and very efficient. He addresses real problems encountered in
practice and performance, both stylistically and specifically. The way he
performs and teaches taiji is guaranteed to be correct in the eyes of all
judges. More importantly, he is one of few who are able to express the passion
and strength beneath taiji’s soft veneer.

During my training with Professor Li, he explained the difference between a
good and an outstanding taiji performance. A good taiji performance demonstrates
a high level of flexibility, balance, and fluidity – it should be very
elegant. In addition to that elegance, an outstanding taiji performance will
express the internal strengths of jing, qi, and shen (strength, vitality, and
spirit). “Taiji without jing, qi, and shen is like reciting a beautiful poem
without rhythm or emotion,” he told me. “It is beautiful, but still lacking
in something important, and elusive.”

Standardized Taiji Competition Forms

For the sake of unity and competition, it is good to have standards and
requirements. Li Deyin and a wushu committee created, edited and standardized
all taijiquan competition routines, namely the 88-Form, Yang, Chen, Wu, and Sun
styles and Wu Dang Taiji Sword. Among all contemporary and traditional taiji
routines, competition routines are considered the best because they include the
most important elements of their respective styles with a minimum of repetition.

By 1976, the rapid growth of popular and competitive taiji demanded a
comprehensive routine that would embody all the different styles. 48-Form
Taijiquan was Li Deyin’s first attempt at a comprehensive taiji routine.
Working with a committee of taiji masters, he created this form as a combination
of the 4 major styles plus elements of Push Hands. Though 48-Form Taijiquan did
not become the international standard for competitive taijiquan, it is a
beautiful form that has become very popular throughout the world.

In 1989, a committee of great taiji masters, foremost among whom was
Professor Li Deyin, choreographed 42-Form Taijiquan Competition Routine. This
routine is stronger, more beautiful, and shorter than 48-Form, which makes it
altogether much more appropriate for international competition. The next year,
International Wushu Federation announced 42-Form Taijiquan Competition Routine
as the first ever universally standardized taijiquan competition routine, and
the official taiji competition routine of the 11th Asian Games. Now, over ten
years later, 42-Form is still considered the most complete standard by which a
taiji competitor can be judged, as well as one of the most beautiful taiji forms
in existence.

Promoting Taijiquan

As vice president of the Chinese Wushu Association, Li Deyin holds the
responsibility for many important events. Li Deyin has established over 200
taijiquan practice stations in Beijing. In the past 20 years, he has trained
thousands of volunteer taijiquan coordinators and teachers. With the support of
his many friends and peers, Li Deyin has organized taijiquan tournaments all
over China. He coordinated a magnificent ten-thousand-person performance of
24-Form in Tiananmen Square. For the opening ceremony of 11th Asian Games, Li
Deyin organized and led fifteen hundred Chinese and Japanese people in a
performance of 24-Form Taijiquan, the first time that people of the two nations
performed together officially and openly in such a large venue.

"China's Best Judge"

Professor Li Deyin has earned numerous titles and awards, among which are
“International Wushu Judge” and “China’s Best Judge.” At the 11th
Asian Games, Professor Li Deyin was the chief judge. He has trained many judges
in classes set up by the International Wushu Federation, and given numerous
lectures all over the world explaining the rules, requirements, and standards of
taijiquan competition.

Taijiquan to the World

In 1975, Li Deyin realized that foreigners coming to China were interested in
taijiquan. At the time, however, there were no facilities or resources for
international taiji instruction. In response, Li Deyin collaborated with other
taiji instructors and opened the first international recreation taiji center in
China. Classes were established for non-Chinese residents who studied or worked
in China, including foreign embassy employees. In just two years, over 600
people from 50 countries participated in taiji classes.

The Ambassador of Madagascar learned taiji in China. His impression: “In
ancient history, the Chinese grape was delivered to my country, and it has
become one of our favorite fruits. Today, I intend to carry taijiquan home with
me and make it one of our favorite exercises.”

When Former President George Bush was the US ambassador to China, his wife
Barbara Bush studied at one of the Beijing international recreation centers. At
the center’s graduation ceremony, she joyfully represented the American
students in a performance of taijiquan.

But since not everybody can go to China to learn taiji, Li Deyin has traveled
nearly everywhere to teach taiji, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, Japan,
England, the United States, Sweden, and Switzerland.

When the door of China was opened to the world in 1981, Li Deyin,
representing the city of Beijing, made his first trip to Japan to teach
taijiquan. Since then, Li Deyin has made special teaching trips to Japan every
year for the last 20 years. Over one hundred thousand Japanese people have
studied from Li Deyin. Every taiji practitioner in Japan knows his name.

In 1982, on his tour of Beijing, the Japanese Prime Minister Suzuki Yoshiyuki
made a special appointment with Li Deyin for a taijiquan lesson in his hotel
room, squeezed into his busy schedule.

Li Deyin first taught in England in 1989. In order to demonstrate the
foundations of taijiquan, Li Deyin and a British coach performed Push Hands on
stage: Li Deyin gently moved his body back and forth, and the British coach flew
across the stage. The audience was stunned. Many of them began training with Li
Deyin, and now, after ten years of hard work and dedication, most of those
British students have become masters themselves. Li Deyin’s popularity has
grown so much that his daughter Li Faye founded and instructs at the “Deyin
Taijiquan Association” in England.

Many non-Chinese have changed their careers to become professionals in taiji,
as well. British athlete Simon Watson was just a spectator at a taiji tournament
in 1990 when the elegance and the strength of taijiquan fascinated and compelled
him to begin lessons with Professor Li Deyin. Since then, he has won the taiji
grand championship in England and in Europe, and was second runner up in the
World Wushu Championship. He is now a taiji coach.

Japanese athlete Morita Hisako began as a housewife interested in taijiquan;
under the tutelage of Professor Li Deyin, she won the Japan and Asian Wushu
Competition championship.

In my home city of San Diego live two grateful students of Li Deyin: Cao
Fengshan, a Beijing Collegiate gold-medalist, and myself. I have won numerous
championships and medals in the USA and in China. The USA Wushu Kungfu
Federation awarded me the title “Internal Athlete of the Year” for the year
2000. I attribute my successes to my masters, especially Professor Li Deyin. He
teaches wholeheartedly and tirelessly, with amazingly sharp eyes and clear
judgement. He truly is the best taiji coach in the world.